Wonderment of play

Warning: The inner wanna be teacher in me LOVES doing things like this with my kids. I did start off going to college to be a teacher....just didn't finish!

I am completely fascinated by watching how little minds work and learn, it's one of my favorite things about being a mom. I have learned a lot by following this blog and studying up on a teaching style called Reggio Emilia. So with that being said, enjoy the exploration with me!!

I set up this invitation for the kids while they napped.

I had 2 shoe boxes and cut shapes of different sizes in them. I purposely did not tape the lid down because I knew the first thing they would want to do is see where the items were going and then dump them out! I did something similar (but just used rocks) several months ago and they enjoyed it, but I wasn't sure if this would be too boring for them now. I offered a variety of shapes, colors and textures for them to explore and made sure to use a white tablecloth so that they could more easily see the objects:

Mark was up first and went straight for the pom poms. I didn't give ANY direction at all. I simply sat next to him, answered his questions and took pictures. He got them all out, organized them how he wanted, and then named every color:

He was fascinated with the jewels and liked to compare shapes (oval and diamonds) to size. He dumped them from one jar to the next (good thing I've been saving all of Annie's baby food jars!):

Then of course he had to shake them and watch where they landed!!

He was a little confused by the light, medium and dark shades. He kept thinking the dark blue was black...so I lined them up so he could see the difference (excuse his hand reaching in to steal one):

Then he hid a lot of them under the sheet, again with no direction from me. He has still not discovered or even touched the box!

He asked me what this was and it took me a second to think of the word (tired brain:) and so before I could say string he said 'it's a snake!' I smiled and then he pulled out every 'snake' and said...'pink snake, purple snake, orange snake' and so on!! I guess it does look like a snake coming out of the jar!

He noticed the rocks last and started fitting them in jars while I showed him the difference between smooth and rough:

Then he discovered the box! Last thing and I directed him a little bit here and showed him what the holes were for. Once he realized that, he had a lot of fun putting all the objects in and out of the box:

About 40 minutes later Elizabeth woke up! She's been sleeping a ton lately and eating a lot, can you say growth spurt?! The invitation was there but because she already saw Mark playing with everything and using the box it wasn't a true exploration for her. I will have to pull this out again when it's just her and I and observe. With that being said she still had a lot of fun, even if Daddy came home shortly after and we had to cut it off early to go to Costco. The first thing she did was sit down and ask me what everything was:

Then she did the exact opposite of Mark and started mixing everything together!!

Dumping them all out:

Hoarding them back in and then stuffing all the jars with a variety of objects!

Then eventually put things in and out of the box:

Mark even continued playing when Elizabeth woke up, so he went a good hour playing with this!! Success, yay!! I bet you are wondering what I did with Annie this whole time?

No I didn't leave her in her jumper the WHOLE time!! I did at first when Mark woke up but after he got into it I grabbed her out and let her join the fun! The first thing she did was pick up two jars and bang them together:

Then quickly discovered the rocks:

Which then naturally went straight into (and then quickly out of) her mouth!!

She loved chewing on this string for a long time:

And even the jar:

She wanted to know what was in the box too! I should've filled up a box for her too....next time.

Annie at 9 months!!

A week ago I took Annie for her 9 MONTH check up!!! I can't believe it! Here is what our Annie is like at this age:

Weight: 18 lbs. 14 oz (60%)

Height: 26 3/4 in. (25%)

Annie continues to be our little ray of sunshine!! I can't believe how much she has changed in just a month. At Christmas time she cut her 1st two bottom teeth and then nothing happened until this month. She now has an additional 5 teeth!!! All 4 top ones and one more bottom one (I'm sure the other bottom will come soon making a grand total of 8)! And boy have I felt her pain, especially at night. Gone are the nights of her sleeping all the way through:( She is up at least twice a night and has been for a good 3 or 4 weeks. I don't know what we would do without nigh time Orajel and Advil!

On top of not sleeping as well at night she has been taking shorter naps or not any at all because she is just so darn excited about life that she can't sleep!! And I would be to if I were her. She has learned to crawl forward and can pull herself up (mostly to her knees but on Saturday she pulled herself up in her crib all the way...and then started crying:). She has been busy doing all her usual stuff too, like dancing, clapping, reading, banging things together, emptying EVERYTHING she can get to and of course grabbing for everything that her siblings have in their hands! Annie can play so well by herself, but always loves company. As soon as you sit by her on the floor she will start climbing and try to stand up. She LOVES to stand! I think she will be ready this week to walk with a push toy. She tries to push her learning table and walk with it!

Some of Annie's favorite books are Baby Giggles, 10 Rubber Duckies, 10 Little Ladybugs, Noisy Peekaboo, and her all time favorite of the moment is Wheels on the Bus because it has a button she can push and then she dances away while I sing! Annie loves any attention from Mark and Elizabeth. Lately Mark has been really good with cuddling/wrestling with her on the floor. She pulls his hair and clothes and he just laughs! Elizabeth is always good at making sure Annie has a toy. And she always ask where she is and what she's doing if she's not in the room.

Annie will eat almost anything!! In fact the only 2 things I've seen her not enjoy is avacodos and cottage cheese. Her favorites are yogurt, blueberry waffles, toast with cream cheese, pears and Arrowroot cookies. She prefers to drink straight from a cup as opposed to a sippy cup. She eats lunch and dinner and since she nurses when she wakes in the morning all she has is some Cheerios usually while the twins eat their breakfast. As she gets closer to a year we will start feeding her 3 solid meals.

Annie loves to sleep on her side or stomach now, no more back sleeping unless she is REALLY tired! She still sings herself to sleep every time and I still love listening and singing back to her:) She likes to play with my hair and then her own hair when she's eating...that's how I know she is tired, when she moves on to playing with her own hair! She is still a light sleeper but has gotten better at ignoring the twins at night. I think one of her favorite times of day is right before bed when I take her around to get hugs and kisses from everyone. She always smiles and laughs!

We love our Annie girl SO MUCH and feel so lucky to have such a happy, smiley, silly girl in our family! We love you Annie!!

One of my favorite times of day is first thing in the morning. I am still not a great morning person but Annie always wakes up before the twins and I sneak in there to nurse her. She will then just look around, I'll open the blinds so we can both see outside, she'll periodically lay her head down and then look up at me and smile. Not an all tooth and gums smile, just a simple smile that says she's happy to see me. I love starting the day this way. I always want to remember this and I tried to capture it up in her room after a nap one day...but this is all I got:

Can you even stand it?! She's SO CUTE!!!!!

This was her standing in the crib on Saturday morning, except crying of course....

And this was her first time touching the grass last week!!!

3 days of SUN!!!

We had 3 days of sunshine and semi warm temps (mid 50's) and we spent every possible second of it outside!!!! It felt so good to soak up the sun....sooooo good! I think spring is my favorite season. There are no words to describe how good it feels to drive with the window down, or exchange socks and shoes for sandals and taking off layers of clothes because for once in several months it is too warm outside!!

The kids had fun exploring, playing in rocks, dirt, sand, pushing cars and strollers and drawing with sidewalk chalk. We went to parks and for walks and Mark 'helped' the neighbor weed her flower bed (it was so sweet). One of the best parts of the weekend was finding ladybugs, worms and snails!! The kids were especially excited for the ladybugs. Here is Mark pointing to the won we found in the flower bed (oh we also ate dinner outside too, hence the smoothies in hand..and on a side note, you really can't taste spinach in smoothies, yay! And on another side note, lately E insists on wearing Mark's stuff, like his shoes that are a bit too big for her!):

Mark had a hard time understanding that you can't pick up the ladybug with your fingers (like a pincer grasp)! He had a hard time being patient enough to let it climb on his finger, but once he got it he was SO happy!!!

Elizabeth observed with a smile but had no interest in holding ladybugs, worms or snails like Mark did. And that's ok. Notice her puppy she's holding?! She carries it around like that all the time!!

Here's to hoping for more sunshine and warmer weather!!!!

I love...no I hate... no I love....

TARGET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That place is like Costco! I go in for a few things and walk out with a hundred!! I was dreading this trip because all the kids HAD to come along. Yes one big family affair! They all needed shoes and I wasn't sure what size the twins feet were anymore. They went NUTS and were running everywhere!! Annie was so tired, she just layed back in the cart and relaxed! Her eyes are closed in the following picture but she didn't fall asleep (ya right, that would NEVER happen, this is Annie we are talking about! That girl can outlast the twins!)

Mark tried on this Superman hat and said 'Cool!'

At one point the boys got separated from us girls and apparently the boys got tired of looking for us:

Anyways....we found tons of things we wanted and needed, except for shoes for Elizabeth! Owell. Good times!

Bedtime Madness

The twins were a bit wound up tonight before bed. They were both laughing so hard at each other!! Elizabeth was laughing because Mark was trying to steal her stuffed animals to throw them on the floor. Apparently this is hilarious!

Sensory play

Lately blogging once a week seems to be working for me, I think I may keep that up. I can do it on the weekends when I have a little more help/time. The question is do I post all at once or spread it out?? How do you like to receive your news from our family?! Mark says spread it out...ok, we'll try that.

Last Monday we woke up to snow! As you can see out our kitchen sink window below. Even though St. Patrick's day was over I still wanted the kids to hang up there clovers on the 'tree' (aka branch we found in the backyard when the wind blew):

I think we'll reuse it for Easter themed things. Although it wasn't as cool to them as I hoped it might be:) We let Annie have some sensory fun with yogurt!!

I was SO EXCITED to try out the following activity!!! I found it here and thought the kids would think it was great....but to my dismay they really didn't. I expected at least 20 minutes of entertainment and it lasted about 5 or 6:( They didn't get it and there was nothing for them to really 'do'. They just kept asking for markers and stamps! They want to draw things, especially animals and so away these things went and out came good old construction paper and markers!!

Annie kind of thought it was fun though!

Maybe I'll try to bring them out again this week....or add something to the bag that they have to find like a dice, or marbles or something...

Annie going crazy!!!!!

I have so much blogging to do from last week but this morning I had to quickly post some cute things from Annie.

Yesterday our neighbor was holding Annie at church and started shaking her head and then Annie copied her!!!!! It was SO CUTE!!!! So here we are after church trying to get her to do it:

I know that walkers are supposed to be banned from use but how could we not let her do this yesterday....I mean just look at how fast those legs are going...and that smile...PRICELESS!!!!!

I let her try this on Friday and mistakenly put on a nice pair of shoes....she ripped holes in them within the first 5 minutes!!! I'll take a picture for proof, crazy girl!!!